


Collect Your Courage

by AndreaLyn



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-02
Updated: 2011-05-02
Packaged: 2017-10-18 22:05:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"You and Danny are like a matched set, now, no one will be able to get a word in edgewise."</i> Danny's dating someone else and Steve's come back from a mission unable to hold back a single thought, good or bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collect Your Courage

On the day that Danny tells Five-O that he’s started dating someone, Steve is on his way to inform his team that he’s being redeployed. Chin and Kono are more interested in Danny’s love life than they are with Steve’s news. Steve isn’t that surprised, considering that he’s in the same boat.

They’re all _especially_ interested when they find out that Danny is dating a man.

Even Steve is having trouble keeping occupied with his big news when he walks into headquarters on the tail end of Danny’s big announcement. First, he wants to know why Danny is telling everyone when Steve isn’t there. Then, Danny says he’s dating a guy named Eric and Steve experiences a brief moment of pure irritation, tensing his jaw so hard that it clicks. Thirty seconds after Steve walks in and gets pissed at Danny for not waiting for him, he already understands why he rushed ahead with the news.

“Where did you meet?” Steve asks, trying for politeness in the wake of the wave of possessive anger pushing through him.

“He does the fingerprints down at HPD, he asked me out. We’ve been on a couple dates, but it’s not too serious, yet. We’re seeing where it goes,” Danny says with a keen eye on Steve, like he’s gauging how badly Steve is reacting to this. “Hey, so, you said you had some news when you barged in just two seconds ago, today’s the day for revelations,” he says with a broad grin. “What’s new with you, Steve?”

Steve doesn’t beat around the bush. He tells them, straight out, the truth: the SEALs would like to reactivate him for a single mission and he’ll be leaving for an undefined period of time.

“Doing what?” Danny demands.

“It’s classified,” Steve says, crossing his arms and lifting himself to his full height to produce an imposing air.

Danny’s smile is instant and far from actually _pleased_ with Steve’s reply. “Fuck you,” he says, but it’s tinged with the shadow of a good mood.

Steve refuses to even consider that Danny’s good mood could be influenced by his new boyfriend. When he wants to be, Steve is _excellent_ with denial.

“I’ll be back before you know it. It’s one mission and it’s local,” Steve says, his tone sliding back into being the boss as he talks to his team. He looks from Chin and Kono – who seem to understand – and back to Danny, who looks like he wants to cheerfully pry out Steve’s eyes from their sockets with a toothbrush. “Danno,” he tries to sweet-talk him a little. “C’mon, you’ll be so busy with your new boyfriend that you won’t even notice I’m gone. Hey, where are you two going for your next date?” Steve asks, trying to let enthusiasm cover the jealousy that’s starting to brew at the fact that Danny’s dating a guy who’s not-him. “I can give you suggestions.”

“You know what?” Danny says, like he’s just remembered something. “It’s classified, Steven. Good luck out there, don’t die with the Rangers.” He doesn’t even wait for the reply, starts walking towards the door with a steady pace.

“Navy!” Steve shouts after him, but it’s too late. Danno has left the building.

*

“Kono,” Steve says in a brief message the day he gets back from a classified mission that’s left him in a unique _condition_ , “I need to talk to you. Surfing on my beach in twenty, bring your board, I’ll see you here, and I…” The message should go on longer than that, but Steve deliberately cuts the call short so he can pace back and forth in the foyer.

He’s just come back from three sets of doctors and a visit to Max.

It’s hard to accept what they’ve been telling him, even though there’s a lot of evidence that what’s happening is _real_ and he’s pretty screwed as a result. The mission had gone smoothly right up until Steve got made at the end, captured, and put in a chair while he was pumped full of sodium amytal. His team had rescued him before any secrets could spill loose, but the issue had more to do with the fact that the high quantities of the drug are still in his bloodstream.

“Two, three days,” Max had said. “I can predict the drug will be fully out of your system by then.”

“That seems like a very long time, Max,” Steve had replied, gripping his arms as hard as he could to forcibly stop himself from going on and on. “From everything I’ve seen on the drug, the effects should be moot in a day.”

“Ah, yes. Normally!” Max had eagerly agreed, “you’re correct. However, it seems as though they’ve tweaked certain markers to ensure that the effects last longer. I’ll tell the Governor you require an extra three days of leave. I would advise that you keep to yourself for the most part. The loosening of inhibitions can produce both truth and lies and most people find it difficult to read the difference.”

Steve feels like he can’t just be gone for two weeks, come back, and avoid his team. Still, seeing Chin could go poorly due to his father’s relationship with the man and Danny…

Well, seeing Danny is out of the question, right now. With his tongue loosened, he can only imagine the horrifying things that he’d say – truth _or_ lies.

Kono’s at his house in seventeen minutes, her face lighting up like the sun when she first sees him. Her board is still fixed to the roof of her car, but she’s too eager to see Steve to get it down, rushing across his driveway to hug him tightly.

“You smell so good,” Steve blurts out.

He’s starting to think that having Kono over is a bad idea, too. He should have locked himself in his bedroom, disconnected the landline and his cell phone, and not made human contact for the next three days. Kono seems to be willing to hear out an explanation, but Steve’s humiliation is growing in exponential amounts.

“Shit, I didn’t mean that. I mean, I meant that,” he clarifies. “But I didn’t mean to say it. I mean, I’ve been saying everything. Max says I’ll be saying everything, but he says I can lie, it’s just a matter of picking up the right track of a thought in the case that it’s a lie. I mean, I could say that I didn’t want to see you, I wanted to see Danny, but I don’t really want to see Danny…”

He would still be talking, but Kono has clasped a firm palm over his mouth.

Steve has the feeling that the sympathy he’d been hoping for is a lost cause, given the look of horror on Kono’s face. “No,” she says firmly when Steve reaches up to try and pull her hand away. “Steve,” she warns. “For both our sakes, don’t say another word.”

Steve obeys. He lets his hands fall back down to his sides, giving her a pleading look with his eyes alone. Danny’s always said it’s his ‘desperate puppy’ look and that no one has been built to resist it. It proves true when Kono pulls her hand away from his mouth.

“Okay, Steve, what happened?”

He tells her in fits and spurts of truth and lies exactly what happened. He tells her about his meeting with the doctors and Max and about how he’s been given an official reprieve from work for the next few days. He manages to keep his attention fixed on the story and doesn’t break off into any other tangents.

“So, you’re basically saying anything that comes to your mind,” Kono says later, by the time they’re out on their boards, riding the waves. He’s been approved for mild exercise because it might help to break apart the chemicals in his system, but he’s officially banned from anything too strenuous. Not that Steve is actually taking that fully seriously. “You probably shouldn’t be coming to work,” she agrees, but she’s grinning. “Even if I think the suspects in Oahu would really enjoy a Steve McGarrett who can’t keep his mouth shut. You and Danny are like a matched set, now, no one will be able to get a word in edgewise.”

Steve’s expression screws up in mild pain and he really wishes that Kono hadn’t mentioned Danny. It’s taking all his strength not to just blurt out his random thoughts and now that Kono’s mentioned Danny, it’s like a goddamn reservoir is ready to spill loose with all his secrets.

“Is he really still dating that guy from HPD?” Steve asks, managing to hold back most of the vitriol he wants to push into those words.

“Who, Eric?”

“That’s a ridiculous name,” Steve says. “And it’s ridiculous. The whole thing is insane. Danny’s suddenly dating a man? Since when is Danny anything but straight? He’s practically ogling women in bikinis all the time when he’s not looking at me and it’s not like he’s ever mentioned anything to me. We talk,” Steve bites out sharply, “we talk about everything, he would have told me about this.”

Kono’s pressing her lips together and when Steve glares at her, whatever smile she’s been hiding vanishes completely.

“What?” Steve demands.

“When he’s not looking at you?” she echoes his words.

“It’s like my chest has a magnet. He bitches that I take my shirt off too much, but he’s clearly enjoying the view!” Steve says, like he’s accusing Danny of something that deserves great punishment. Steve lets out a groan as he realizes he’s gone off on another tangent. He quiets himself, forcing his senses to take in the waves lapping at his board instead of the impulse to let his mouth run rampant. “I think it should go unsaid that you should forget everything I say today,” he insists.

“Already forgotten,” Kono promises. “Even if I think maybe you ought to talk to Danny.”

“Before this wears off? No. No, Kono, that’s an incredibly bad idea,” he says, almost worriedly. “The last thing I need is for Danno to start getting wind that I’m jealous of his fingerprint-boyfriend just because he looks to HPD before he looks to me. Like I haven’t taken him out on dates? Like I haven’t tried to be good to him? And instead, he goes running to some douchebag named Eric?”

“I don’t think he’s a bad guy, Steve,” Kono says, barely holding back her laughter. “Actually, he’s pretty nice. We went for drinks the other day.”

“All I’m saying,” Steve says forcefully, “is that after I’ve taken Danny out for dinner, drinks, and out to see this island, if he wanted to date someone, he should be dating me.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to mix up work and pleasure, boss,” Kono says gently.

Steve purses his lips together, not liking that as an answer. “Screw the work-personal life mix,” is what he says. “He could’ve talked to me about this before he did it.”

“Steve, seriously,” Kono says, guiding her board around to start paddling out to where the waves are cresting. “Talk to Danny! He’s gonna notice that you’re avoiding him since everyone knows you’re back! And hey, just, think up a lot of lies if you’re worried about him finding out about the truth! Even though it might sort of make him hate you a little, but it’s Danny,” she says with a shrug. “He kind of always hates you a little.”

Steve has about twenty more minutes of complaining in him and thanks to the drugs in his body, he’s ready to let them loose on someone. It’s a good thing that he’s in the water and has no access to his phone, because the temptation to phone Danny and let him hear every single last word is so strong that it could overpower any resolve Steve has left.

*

The effects of the drug have yet to wear off by evening on Steve’s first day back home. He tires of lingering around the house and watching old football games sometime around six and when he texts Chin to ask if he has any plans, he gets the reply that Chin is already on a date.

Speaking of dates…

Kono said that Danny is on another date tonight with Eric at one of the nearby tiki bars. As stupid as Steve knows it is, he just pretends that he’s lost a barrier between brain and common sense as well as the filter between his mind and his mouth. It’s the only explanation he has for why he gets in his truck and starts driving without thinking it through.

When he gets there, he finds Danny quickly. He’s sitting at a small table with the new boyfriend at the back of the restaurant. They look happy, Steve supposes. He’s not exactly in the habit of inspecting people and judging their happiness, but Danny’s talking expansively, his hands gesturing everywhere.

Steve can’t stand looking, but at the same time, he doesn’t know that he can bear to look away. He’s caught in this frozen tableau when Danny looks across the restaurant and catches Steve standing there.

They stare at each other, frozen, and Steve doesn’t even lift a hand to wave when Danny summons him over. He doesn’t even acknowledge Danny’s presence.

He gets out of there as fast as he can, speeding the whole way home. He’s glad he isn’t stopped because while he could probably avoid the ticket, he’d probably end up saying something that gets him booked. So it’s a small favor when he gets back to the house and he can take the time in the darkness to compose himself.

He grabs two Longboards and burrows down into the couch to try and let the beer take his mind off the evening. He’d been an idiot to go spy on Danny, like he’d expected something good to come of it. He gets through both beers quickly and goes for a third, followed by a fourth.

He’s contemplating a fifth when the front door creaks slightly, a dead giveaway that there’s someone in the house.

Steve tenses up, trying to remember where the closest gun is.

“Who’s there?” he calls out sharply. He’s ready to attack, but he’s trying to come off like he isn’t a threat. If he has the element of surprise, he’ll be able to do a better job taking someone off-guard. He inches forward on the couch and while he’s tipsy, it hasn’t slowed down his abilities. He pivots in the dark, sights the intruder, and pins them to the floor of the foyer.

“Jesus fuck,” is the whined reply.

Steve stares down in horror and confusion, settling back into a straddle when he realizes that he’s just tackled Danny. Wait, why is Danny breaking into his house? “What are you doing here?” Steve demands, getting off Danny in order to turn on the lights. “I thought you were on your date.”

“What the fuck are you doing tackling me?” Danny complains, rubbing at his neck.

“I asked who was there, you didn’t reply!”

“I was going for the lights, you idiot!” Danny snaps right back, his voice getting incrementally louder. “Jesus, I think you broke something.”

“Danny, you’re at your _least_ attractive when you’re complaining and that’s saying something because I…” Steve bites down so hard on his lower lip that he draws blood, but he’s managed to stop the train of thought before it’s become speech. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the restaurant on your date, you’re not supposed to be creeping into my house in the middle of the night. I don’t need a nanny, Danno. I’ve just been drinking a little, but it’s a little and I had no intention of drinking a lot.”

Steve knows that he’s screwed.

Danny’s a detective and a good one, at that. He’s going to catch on to the fact that while Steve isn’t giving much away, his manner of speech and the pace has become altered. A good detective like Danny isn’t going to miss that.

“What’s the matter with you?”

Steve remains silent. If Steve can just hold his tongue and not answer, he won’t get started on any tangents that inevitably get him into trouble because then Danny will _know_. He keeps his back turned, but he should have known that Danny will never just let him get away that easily. Before Steve knows it, he’s getting hauled back around, forced to face Danny.

At this point in time, it’s the worst possible thing that could happen.

“You got back this morning and you call Kono and you text Chin, but you don’t even want to say a word to me?” Danny asks incredulously. “Are you _kidding_ me? You needed to _stalk_ me? You couldn’t just pick up the phone and go ‘hey, Danno, I’m back from my crazy-dangerous classified mission that I refuse to tell you anything about’. That was too hard?”

Steve’s lips feel as though they’re going white with loss of blood. He’s pressing them together as hard as possible to avoid rising to Danny’s baiting.

“Kono says something happened and I’m not supposed to ask you about it, but what the fuck could’ve happened to unscrew your head?” Danny demands, getting in so close that Steve can smell his cologne. He taps on Steve’s forehead with two of his fingers, so dangerously close. “Hello, anyone in there!” If Danny doesn’t move away soon, Steve is going to pin him to the wall and tell him everything he wants to do to him, starting from the way he wants to tear the tie away from his shirt and the fact that he’s going to give Danny so many hickeys, he’ll look spotted.

Steve clenches his fist tightly. “Danny,” he gets out, choking the name out past his lips. “Don’t.”

“Don’t, what? Don’t demand a reasonable explanation for the crazy-ass behavior you’ve been indulging in?” Danny lets out a frustrated huff. “I swear to god, Steven, all I want to know is why you haven’t bothered to call me. Since when did we get to the point that you were lurking outside restaurants and staring at me like I’ve got a restraining order on you?”

Steve inhales sharply through his nose, but all that does is give him a good smell of Danny’s cologne and the gel he uses in his hair. He smells _Danny_ and he’s already using all his strength to keep from letting every truthful thing he’s ever thought spill from his lips.

“Danny, this is a bad idea for you to be this close to me right now, I’m warning you,” Steve growls out the words like he’s an animal who ought to be in a cage rather than a man just talking to another man.

Danny doesn’t back down. The…

“…stubborn bastard,” Steve mutters, unable to keep a hold on his tongue anymore. “You seriously couldn’t listen to me? Just once in your life, you couldn’t listen to me? What’s the matter with you, Danny? I’m practically at my wit’s end with you here and I would’ve been fine if you just avoided me and let me ignore you so I didn’t do anything stupid like jump you right here when you have a boyfriend. Which, we need to talk about sometime,” Steve jumps thoughts from track A to track B and then back to the first. “I got something in my bloodstream, okay? And it’ll be gone in a few days, but until then, I’m pretty much saying everything that comes to mind. Good, bad, truth, lies, everything. So right now, I could tell you that I loathe your guts more than anything because you’re the worst example of a human being I’ve ever met and I could tell you that I want nothing more than to drop to my knees and suck your dick until you scream my name, but you’d never know the truth or the lie. All you’ll know is that you pushed me to this and I can’t stop talking, Danny,” Steve says, starting to sound panicked, “I can’t stop talking. Are you happy? Are you happy that you figured out that I’m a little bit of a mess around you because I don’t know what you do to me? I can’t _actually_ put into words the effect you have on me. Does that make you happy?”

Danny looks like Steve’s physically struck him in the face instead of Steve’s words doing the trick. Whatever the weapon, it’s led to this.

Steve grimaces heavily and shuts his eyes tight, pressing his hand against his forehead. “Danny, get out of here before I say something worse. I’ll be back to the office in three days when I’m not trying to talk you out of your relationship because I’d rather be the one who makes you smile like that.”

He sighs, aware that the longer Danny remains, the more Steve is going to say – and the more he’ll regret.

“Danny,” Steve says warningly.

“I’m going, Steve, I’m going. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Danny, no, don’t do…” Steve tries to shout after him, but he’s gone out the front door, “…that,” he sighs.

He’s left alone with too much said and not enough alcohol running through his system. Steve debates the merits of going for another drink, but in the end, he sits in the chair in the living room and stares at the walls of the house like he can bring them down with a glare alone.

*

His cell phone rings at nine the next morning.

Steve hadn’t falling asleep until four AM and it had been uneasy. His dreams had been riddled with nightmares thanks to the latest mission and he can’t see it getting better anytime soon. Nine o’clock rolls around, the phone rings, and Steve glares metaphorical daggers at it before he picks it up.

He knows that his situation hasn’t improved any when the first thing he says is, “I’m gonna hunt you down and kill you for calling at this hour.”

Thank _god_ it’s only Danny.

“And good morning to you, too,” Danny replies brightly.

“Danno, what did I say about not interacting with me?” Steve asks, his voice rough with sleep. He’s still not entirely sure he’s not dreaming. “I swear to god, if this is a dream, even my dream version of you is an idiot. Danny, we can’t do this. There are lines I refuse to cross and one of them involves getting in between someone and their significant other.”

“Steve, shut up,” Danny orders.

“Danny,” Steve says, his patience on one of the world’s shortest strings at this point. “I have been _trying to tell you_ that _I can’t_.”

“Shut up and tell me what you want to do to me.”

“Danny, remember how I said I wanted to kill you? That’s only increased in the last few moments,” Steve gets out, his voice descending into husky territory as he fights every last impulse that drives him to _talk_. In the end, he loses and gives in to the desire. “Danny,” he says raggedly. “I want to pin you down to my bed and shut you up. You have no idea how badly I want to force your mouth shut and I want to do it with my dick, make you wrap those goddamn perfect lips around it and just suck because I can’t stop thinking about it. I think about fucking your mouth every goddamn time you even so much as go near something that you wrap your lips around. The other week? The day when Chin offered you that cigar and you practically fellated it, I had a hard-on I had to hide behind my desk the whole day.”

There’s silence on the other end, but even sheer humiliation can’t stop Steve from rambling onwards.

Steve lets out a slow exhalation. “Fuck, Danny, you have no idea how badly I want to get those clothes off you. I’ve thoughts about getting you on missions with me where you get soaked just so I can pry the dripping wet clothes off of your body, button by button, using that tie to bind your wrists together and pinning you face-down on the bed while I get you ready for me and then fuck you until you can’t even remember your own name. Danny, why are you making me do this, you’re with that guy, you’re with Eric…”

“Steve, just, keep talking. Trust me.” Danny’s voice sounds strange, but Steve doesn’t have time to focus on it when he’s occupied with a hundred thoughts that threaten to undo him.

Steve shifts in bed, his hand slipping under the sheets. “Danny, I’m touching myself,” he says because he can’t prevent himself from doing it and Danny knows it. “And I hate you right now. I hate you for not coming to me first and I hate you for deciding to date some HPD guy who does _fingerprints_. I’ve been taking you on dates since halfway through our partnership and you never even acted like you noticed. I thought you were straight because if you were straight, then I’d understand.”

“Steve, I didn’t know, okay? I didn’t know you were serious. You’re not very good with human-to-human interaction, you know that? I wasn’t sure if the mating ritual was just your version of polite company,” Danny says heatedly. At the tail end of his words, Steve hears a slam of a door from somewhere nearby and then the echo of Danny’s voice from somewhere _extremely_ close-by. “Look, there’s something you should know.”

“Is it that you’re in my house? Because if that’s not you, I’m getting out my gun,” Steve warns.

The heavy steps on the staircase come to a stop at Steve’s door and it’s Danny, all right. He hangs up the cell when Danny does the same and they both put them away in tandem. It’s a strange little reversal of their first meeting and Steve appreciates that.

“What should I know?” Steve asks.

“I broke up with the guy at that dinner you crashed. Before you even got there,” Danny clarifies as he slides his cell into his front pocket, fidgeting with the knot of his tie before sliding his palm fully down over the fabric. “I guess maybe he wasn’t what I had in mind for a relationship.”

Steve would’ve normally stayed quiet, but the thing is that his blood contains amounts of a drug that makes him let loose everything. It seems to be getting control of his limbs as well, which is the only explanation for why he surges forward and grabs hold of Danny’s tie with one hand, the other wrapped around his bicep, and far more fixated on pulling Danny down into bed than anything else.

“My goddamn _mating ritual_ is not that hard to read,” Steve growls when he isn’t busy throwing Danny’s tie across the room and undoing every last button in sight, right up until he has zippers to think about rather than fabric and buttons. He slips his palm against the defined curve of Danny’s hips and lets his thumb trail slowly lower as he loosens Danny’s pants and pushes them down around his knees.

Danny’s breath is starting to sound labored and hitched.

“This is such a bad idea,” Steve admits, lips pressed up against Danny’s neck. “I don’t care if you broke up with him. You’re just off a relationship and I can’t shut up.”

“You know,” Danny says with a smirk, “that’s one of the advantages of doing this.”

“Fuck you, Danno.”

“I’ve been trying to get at that, Steven.”

“As hard as I am right now, we’re not having sex.” He reaches for Danny’s hand and shoves it down into his pants. “Not that you jerking me off could hurt. We could think of it like a glimpse into what’ll come next when I’m not feeling like a guilty creep for crashing by the restaurant when you were just dumping him. Plus, I mean, I didn’t even think you would give me a shot.” He bucks his hips into Danny’s waiting palm and lets out a ragged groan. “Fuck, Danny, I can’t even stop talking and I can barely think right now, all I can think is, fuck, how good you smell and feel, that I know where those calluses come from. Fuck, I’m gonna…I’m gonna come,” Steve gets out a warning tersely, but it’s not much warning before he’s spilling all over Danny’s hand.

He collapses back against the bed, his body feeling like lead. His shoulder blades dig against his sheets, Danny collapsing on top of him, clothes strewn in messy array – at least, the half Steve hasn’t dismissed to opposite ends of the room.

“Why couldn’t you have just left well-enough alone?” Steve protests tiredly when he can wiggle his toes and think at the same time. It’s not the best orgasm he’s ever had, but considering the circumstances, it’s far from the worst. He’s looking forward to improving over time, truth be told.

Danny smirks down at him from his position atop Steve. “Are you kidding me?” he asks dubiously. “Since when have I _ever_ known to leave well enough alone. You must know a different Danny Williams because that, my friend, that is not me.”

Steve lets out a grimace when Danny shifts and puts a large amount of his weight against Steve’s torso. Temporarily, he can’t breathe and shoves Danny off swiftly, making sure to collect him closer before he can get too far.

“So, what other deep dirty secrets are you hiding in there, huh?” Danny asks, tapping on Steve’s forehead with his fingers, smoothing out the pads and tracing them down Steve’s cheeks.

Steve tries to stop himself, but his resolve has faded away with his climax and he’s helpless. “I really like it when your hair gets ridiculous and I like it even more when you get ridiculous about the hair. There are times, Danno, when you just have a way of saying certain words and I don’t even know how I haven’t jumped you in the Camaro or bent you straight over the hood. Why do you think I keep taking my shirt off?”

“This is all, this is all fascinating,” Danny says, sounding like he’s barely keeping the laughter from his voice. “But I’m gonna kiss you now, Steve, before you tell me anything else ridiculous.”

“I find you more attractive than Erik Estrada.”

“Yeah, like that,” Danny laughs, cupping Steve cheek as he leans in to press a slow kiss to Steve’s lips, effectively hushing him before any other traitorous thoughts can rush out into the air between them.

*

The effects of the sodium amytal fade away a day earlier than Steve had been expecting, but it’s still two days too long. He’s told Danny no shortage of embarrassing facts that he doesn’t doubt will come back to haunt him in future. They still have yet to actually have sex. They’d gotten close the other night, but then Steve had blurted out a little something about how sometimes he pictures Rachel and Danny in the bedroom, which had effectively killed the mood.

Today, Steve wakes up, drapes an arm around Danny’s naked torso and presses a slow kiss to his shoulder. Danny turns over drowsily and lets out a sleepy sound. “McGarrett, after what you did to me last night with your tongue, you better not be expecting me to be coherent.”

Steve grins lazily and though there are a dozen thoughts and retorts popping to mind, he doesn’t feel compelled to share a single one of them. That’s the instantaneous moment that he knows everything is back to normal.

It seems a shame to let Danny off the hook without a comment.

“Good thing I never need to dose you with truth serum,” Steve murmurs against Danny’s neck, laying sleepy morning-kisses against the warm skin. “No point in going to all that trouble when my tongue has the same effect.”

He manages to shut Danny up by kissing away any forthcoming protests and takes stock of the day, looking forward to mining out every last one of Danny’s secrets, even if he has to do it the _hard_ way.

THE END


End file.
